Thread: GOP megadonor Harold Simmons dies

GOP megadonor Harold Simmons dies

Simmons's net worth was $10 billion, according to Forbes. | AP Photo
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By ELIZABETH TITUS | 12/29/13 5:25 PM EST

Republican megadonor Harold Simmons died Saturday in Dallas at age 82, according to Texas media reports.

Simmons and his wife, Annette, contributed almost $31 million to conservative causes during the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Public Integrity. The majority of it went to American Crossroads, a super PAC backed by former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove.


(PHOTOS: 2012 megadonors)

Simmons and his wife also contributed to super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, according to CPI.

The Dallas Morning News first reported Simmons’s death.
The businessman’s net worth was $10 billion, according to Forbes, placing him at No. 40 on the magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans.

Simmons was part of a group of Republican megadonors who reemerged for the 2010 midterm elections after scaling back during the 2008 race, POLITICO reported. He and another Texan, Bob Perry, had helped finance the anti-John Kerry swift-boat attacks in 2004.

Perry died in April at age 80, prompting reflection on an aging generation of campaign-finance heavyweights.

“I would think there are people who are coming along who will replace the generation that’s giving now,” Republican Governors Association finance chairman Fred Malek told POLITICO earlier this year. “I don’t know who they are exactly.”

Simmons’s spending was not confined to Republican political candidates: His foundation gave $600,000 to Planned Parenthood and a Texas affiliate in 2011, according to CPI, and the same amount to a Dallas LGBT center this year, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is the front-runner against Democrat Wendy Davis in next year’s gubernatorial election, offered his condolences. Simmons had contributed $650,000 to Abbott’s campaign arm through September, according to data compiled by The Texas Tribune.

“The legacy of Harold Simmons will live on to benefit millions of Texans who never had the opportunity to meet the legendary Texan,” Abbott said in a statement.

Outgoing Texas Gov. Rick Perry also commemorated Simmons, referring to the billionaire’s philanthropic efforts.

“His legacy of hard work and giving, particularly to his beloved University of Texas, will live on for generations,” Perry said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/1...#ixzz2ovWwnCTk

The majority of it went to American Crossroads, a super PAC backed by former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove.

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Harold Simmons Political activism[edit]

1980s[edit]

During the Reagan presidency, Simmons was a contributor to GOPAC ^{[citation needed]} Simmons also contributed to the defense funds of Oliver North and John Poindexter, Reagan aides implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.

1990s[edit]

In 1993, Simmons was fined $19,000 by the Federal Election Commission for exceeding the legal limit of campaign contributions in 1989 and 1990 elections.^[20]

Between 1993 and 1997, Simmons and family members and Contran gave more than $315,000 to Republican candidates, according to FEC records.^[20]

2004 presidential election[edit]

During the 2004 presidential campaign Simmons made a $4 million donation to the group Swift Vets and POWs for Truth.^[21] He also donated $100,000 to George W. Bush's January 2005 inaugural ball.^[22]

2008 presidential election[edit]

Simmons, a longtime Republican donor, gave the maximum $2,300 contributions to Senator John McCain, as well as to fellow Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. He was listed as a "bundler" for the McCain campaign on McCain's website, which meant that he had raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the Republican candidate. He also contributed to Representative Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat.^[23] Simmons has given more than $500,000 to Texas Governor Rick Perry, and more than $300,000 to Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott.^[24] He was a major donor to the American Issues Project, an independent conservative political group that ran ads critical of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.^[25]

2010 midterm elections[edit]

Two of Harold Simmons’ companies – Southwest Louisiana Land which he owns and Dixie Rice Agricultural Corp in which he was a major investor – were each $1 million donors to the American Crossroads, a 527 organization working to elect primarily Republican legislators during the 2010 midterm elections.^[26]

2011 illegal campaign contributions[edit]

In 2012, Simmons was fined by the Texas Ethics Commission for illegal campaign contributions to Texas state legislators in 2011.^[27] Simmons had channeled his contributions (to fifteen Republicans and three Democrats) through a political action committee (PAC), but he was the PAC's sole donor.^[27] The fine, in the amount of $6,450, was criticized as "meager" by Texans for Public Justice, the nonprofit organization that filed the complaint.^[27]

2012 presidential election[edit]

Simmons's company, Contran Corporation, donated $1 million to Make Us Great Again, a super PAC supporting Rick Perry's 2012 presidential candidacy. That donation was the single largest received by the PAC in the fourth quarter of 2011.^[28] According to a CBS article, Contran also was the largest donor to American Crossroads, giving $2 million to the conservative super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove. ^[29] Later data from Opensecrets.org shows Contran contributions of $5 million in Nov 2011, $5 million in Jan 2012, and $1 million in April 2012 to American Crossroads. ^[30] Simmons also donated $100,000 directly to another Perry super PAC, the Restoring Prosperity Fund,^[31] before donating $5 million to American Crossroads in addition to Contran's donation.^[32]
He has also contributed to Restore our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney.^{[33] His contributions in support of Romney totaled $16.5 million,} making him the year's third-largest Republican donor, behind Sheldon Adelson and Bob J. Perry.^[27]

As of March, Simmons and Contran Corp. had given almost $18 million to conservative super PACs,^[34] the election's largest single contributor, spread among all the major Republican candidates following the advice of Rove. Simmons said, "Any of these Republicans would make a better president than that socialist, Obama. Obama is the most dangerous American alive ... because he would eliminate free enterprise in this country."<sup>[35]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Simmons</sup>